Laos and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party

[thomasludd]

Is there any discussion on Laos? I tried searching the net for updates, and aside from wiki entries, some fact sheets, i haven't acquired a lot of reading sources. From what i gather it is still a one-party state with the LPRP as ruling party and still is (at least officially) in adherence to Communism and Marxism-Leninism.

What are the comrades' thought on this? Do you have any sources of online readings that would shed some light on the current situation of Laos? Any comrades from Laos here? :)

[Proletarian Ultra]

This question got asked a week ago and no one was able to answer. I'd also be curious if anyone's familiar with the situation in Laos.

[Tablo]

It was my understanding that Laos is pretty much controlled by Vietnam. If Viietnam owns them then they probably aren't adhering to Marxist-Leninist thought.

Edit: Just read some stuff on wikipedia(yeah, I know) and it appears they are quite closely tied to Vietnam, but are pretty much independent.

[Adi Shankara]

This question got asked a week ago and no one was able to answer. I'd also be curious if anyone's familiar with the situation in Laos.

The Lao PDR is another semi-fascist puppet state ran like Burma, in that, the elite of the party and former Pathet Lao cadres enrich themselves while the rest of the Laotian population remains desperately poor.

It'll be a while before this world sees another Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, or Thomas Sankara.

[Barry Lyndon]

The Lao PDR is another semi-fascist puppet state ran like Burma, in that, the elite of the party and former Pathet Lao cadres enrich themselves while the rest of the Laotian population remains desperately poor.

It'll be a while before this world sees another Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, or Thomas Sankara.

:crying: I don't even want to think of what Ho Chi Minh would feel if he saw that the people of Indochina fought so heroically to be free of US imperialism only for their children and grandchildren to be enslaved in neo-liberal sweatshops.

Basically the reason that Laos, along with Vietnam and Cambodia have become capitalist hellholes, is that after being razed to the ground by US imperialism, they were all put under a trade embargo for over a decade afterward. They barely survived because of the Soviet aid they continued to get, but by the 90's that was gone too, so finally they caved and gave the IMF and World Bank everything they wanted.

Vietnam ended up dominating both Laos and Cambodia is due to American bombing in Cambodia and the CIA proxy war in Laos(the CIA boasted that it was their 'largest operation in history'), both countries were utter wrecks and the Vietnamese interventions were necessary to prevent utter societal collapse and mass famine.

[Barry Lyndon]

Here is some info on the massive CIA operation in Laos 1955-75, going a long way towards explaining why Laos is so screwed up today:

http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/2562.cfm

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Laos_CIAHits.html

From the CIA's own website:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art7.html

[Lulznet]

Laos like Vietnam is governed under State Capitalism. :mad:

[thomasludd]

Thanks for the responses. And to Barry Lyndon for the links. It seems there is really little available resources on them.

I'm interested to know if there are alternative parties / organizations / factions that are already there, asking for changes within their regimes or already waging a struggle.

[Chimurenga.]

Thanks for the responses. And to Barry Lyndon for the links. It seems there is really little available resources on them.

I'm interested to know if there are alternative parties / organizations / factions that are already there, asking for changes within their regimes or already waging a struggle.

Laos is a single-party state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Laos

[Tifosi]

Did you know that Laos is the most bombed country in history?

[Zanthorus]

Did you know that Laos is the most bombed country in history?

I heard that it was actually Cambodia, since the Cambodians had 700,000 tons more bombs dropped on them than the Allies dropped throughout the whole of W
world war two. Anyone have any comparitive statistics for Laos?

[BAM]

It was actaully Laos, Zan. I can't remember the exact figures though.

The secret war against Laos lasted (EDIT) from '61-'74

[The Vegan Marxist]

The Lao PDR is another semi-fascist puppet state ran like Burma, in that, the elite of the party and former Pathet Lao cadres enrich themselves while the rest of the Laotian population remains desperately poor.

It'll be a while before this world sees another Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, or Thomas Sankara.

I would disagree with this actually. There's been plenty of Che Guevaras out there, & many more will arise in the future. You don't need to be known to be a revolutionary.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Is there any discussion on Laos? I tried searching the net for updates, and aside from wiki entries, some fact sheets, i haven't acquired a lot of reading sources. From what i gather it is still a one-party state with the LPRP as ruling party and still is (at least officially) in adherence to Communism and Marxism-Leninism.

What are the comrades' thought on this? Do you have any sources of online readings that would shed some light on the current situation of Laos? Any comrades from Laos here? :)

Arn't you an anarchist, yet you call a Marxist-Leninist group comrades? I like this guy.

[People's War]

Did some research recently, but to be honest, it seems to have gone the same way as Vietnam and China and 'liberalised' (haha!) their economy. So that leaves North Korea and Cuba, but given that the former doesn't even claim to be communist anymore and seems to think that the revolution stems from the military rather than the proletariat, in my opinion Cuba is the last communist country.

China is nearer to fascism/corporatism tbh.

[Karl Marx AK47]

Thanks for the responses. And to Barry Lyndon for the links. It seems there is really little available resources on them.

I'm interested to know if there are alternative parties / organizations / factions that are already there, asking for changes within their regimes or already waging a struggle.

Resource extraction is one of the games played in this LLDC.

One pressing issue that may be a matter of life or death is foreign investment putting something like 8 hydro-electric dams along the Mekong river and another 50 on its tributaries, to turn the country into a battery for export to the surrounding region, particularly for Thailand.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east/2009/08/200981285713848390.html

After you've finished watching that piece, this bookmark should keep you busy...

http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/bibliography.html#vil (http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/bibliography.html#vil)

[thomasludd]

Arn't you an anarchist, yet you call a Marxist-Leninist group comrades? I like this guy.

And some would call my non-sectarianism as naivete. :(

[thomasludd]

Laos is a single-party state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Laos

I know. That's why i was asking for


parties / organizations / factions that are already there, asking for changes within their regimes or already waging a struggle.

A single party state doesn't necessarily mean that there is no existing opposition no matter how underground they are or whatever.

[The Red Next Door]

Arn't you an anarchist, yet you call a Marxist-Leninist group comrades? I like this guy.

I do the same too, i consider anarchists comrades.